


Mind Games

by LostOnMyRoad



Series: Sky above and city below [1]
Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: But don’t worry this is what I call light angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, I don’t think so, M/M, Mind Control, feat Johnny storms healing hugs, will Peter ever catch a break
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-20 18:58:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16143452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostOnMyRoad/pseuds/LostOnMyRoad
Summary: Peter doesn’t take so well to mind control after Otto. Granted, nobody takes well to mind control, but it usually doesn’t generate freak outs of this level. Especially not in heroes. Not heroes who have been doing this for years, goddammit.





	Mind Games

**Author's Note:**

> My first foray into the Spider man world! And my first fic in months lol  
> I hope you enjoy! (Alt title for this was I still see your shadows)
> 
> Also, I’ve never actually read the comics, so there’s gonna be errors probably
> 
> In my take of events Otto took control of Peter while the FF were gone and Johnny was in the Negative Zone
> 
> They’ve been back for a while now, and Peter and Johnny have been together for a year
> 
> Idk if this universe really makes sense considering what I know comes from other fics and tumblr
> 
> Please tell me if I should make some tweaks! Criticism is greatly appreciated. Be as harsh as you can, I won’t mind

Peter doesn’t take so well to mind control after Otto. Granted, nobody takes well to mind control, but it usually doesn’t generate freak outs of this level. Especially not in heroes. Not heroes who have been doing this for years, goddammit.

The sounds of the remaining fighting slow around him and then stop.

He’s gasping for breath in a corner of the building.

The villain-whose name he cannot remember-had gotten him under control for just under 30 seconds before Ben had punched him out. Peter remembers slumping like a puppet with his strings cut, and then coming too in a corner of a building that was falling apart. He’s shaking, he knows, and he can’t stop, because it had felt so much like Otto, the phantom press of someone else in his mind, and it’s too much too much too much too much—

“Peter?”

Johnny’s voice echoes off the walls and disappears into the cracks.

It gets closer and closer though, until Peter can see Johnny’s feet from where he is slumped against the wall. He’s taken off his mask, because it felt like wearing another face, like another reminder of what had been done to him. He knows this means that his panic is clearly visible.

He doesn’t look up though. 

Slowly the rest of Johnny comes into view as he leans down and sits next to Peter, in the middle of the broken pipes and shattered glass.

Peter still can’t stop shaking.

Did you really think I was gone? Otto’s voice rolls around his head, followed by his laughter. Peter had always hated his laughter, hated how it was the background music to all of Otto’s particularly cruel decisions.

They sit their together for a minute, Peter’s frantic breathing and Johnny’s forced calm inhales.

Eventually, when Peter starts feeling less like a stranger in his own skin, Johnny puts his arms around him, surrounding him with a warmth that was so unlike Octavius that Peter can’t help but relax. 

He leans into the warmth, feeling the arms around him tighten their grip. 

For a while, it’s just him, Johnny, and the sounds of the building crumbling.

Their breath mingles together and forms wisps in the cold. New York winters are another reason that Johnny is a blessing. 

When the near-silence is broken, it’s broken by the sound of footsteps—Ben’s distinct lumbering gait and Sue and Reed’s quicker lighter ones. Once again Peter stares at the bright blue spandex of the Fantastic Four uniforms. Thankfully, they don’t press, just take one look at him and Johnny and move further away to survey the destruction, still in his line of vision but out of hearing range. They are too good for Peter, too considerate and too trusting. For once he’s glad they were off-planet when—when Otto had him, because who knows what kind of havoc he might have wreaked then. 

Otto had fooled everyone—even Aunt May. And wasn’t that a punch to the gut. He wonders if Johnny would have noticed. Would have noticed how the kisses had changed, more brutal and claiming, and how the name on his lip wasn’t his, but Anna Maria Marconi—

The silence breaks a second time, but this time it’s just Johnny shifting to press a kiss to his forehead. Then he shifts again to look Peter in the eyes.

“Want to head back home?” Johnny asks, not pushing for details, although the question, What was that about, hangs in the air. Peter thinks he should answer it. He doesn’t. Instead he nods and manages a brief smile, hooking his fingers in his partner’s shirt and pulling him into a kiss.

Johnny smiles, even though the worry is still very much present in his eyes. 

They get up, dust of the dirt and debris, and start walking towards the rest of the FF.

Johnny links their fingers together, and Peter feels whole again, himself and not a washed out version trying in vain to get back control.

Later that night, when they settle into bed, Peter presses himself against Johnny, getting as close as he can. He soaks in the warmth. He lets out a sigh, and the fingers running through his hair pause before continuing the motions. He’s too scared to explain and too tense not to. 

“Want to talk about it?”

The question hangs in the air between them again, and this time Peter can’t pretend it doesn’t. Peter owes him this. He knew about the Negative Zone, about dying twice, about burning to bright—He owes Johnny Otto Octavius. He swallows, before pushing himself to lean against the headboard. Johnny does the same.

He fumbles for the words before deciding on “Remember Otto? When you guys were gone?”

He can tell Johnny makes the connection immediately. His brow furrows and his lips purse together. 

“It was too similar,” he huffs, “and you thought it was him coming back. You can tell me about these things, Pete.”

“Sorry, Flame-brain.”

“How long have you been thinking about this?”

There’s a pause before Peter replies. 

“Since he left.”

He can tell Johnny’s not pleased. 

“We can figure out a way to check,” he says, mid-yawn. “We can get him out if he’s still there. But for what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure you’ve been you this whole time.” He punctuates the last sentence by tapping Peters chest. 

Peter nods, throat dry.

They lean back down into the mattress again, and he pushes against the flame hero again. He doesn’t want to let go of this, ever. They fall asleep wrapped around each other.

———————-

Reed attaches the last wires to whatever is on his head. The device is supposed to alert them if someone is still inside Peter’s head, and he hopes it doesn’t fry his brain in the process. 

“You might have some weird dreams,” Reed says as he pushes a couple buttons. “Your subconscious might show you some strange things.” He frowns and adds, “Hopefully the adjustment meter was put in correctly...” 

Before Peter can respond, Reed flips the switch, and he falls into darkness.

He wakes up in a white space. He knows he’s dreaming almost immediately, because Gwen is standing in front of him, smiling. She’s wearing what she was when she died—green pea coat and all. She smiles at him. 

“There’s no one here,” she says. She sounds the same, like she never fell, like she never left. He guesses that this s what’s left of her—what he remembers and how his subconscious constructs her.

“There isn’t anyone here, Pete.” He turns around to come face to face with Uncle Ben. 

Gwen moves closer to his uncle, till they brush shoulders. They smile at him, and he smiles back. They start fading, but not before waving goodbye. Gwen presses a kiss to his cheek right before she disappears.

The world fades into darkness again.

He wakes up.

Johnny grins at him. He’s sitting next to the operating table Peter’s lying on, holding his hand. 

“It’s really just you in there, making stupid decisions.”

Peter lifts his hand to his heart and fakes being shocked and offended. 

“And you fell for me, stupid decisions and all.”

Johnny sticks his tongue out at him, before pulling the hand he’s holding closer, giving it a light kiss.

“Course I fell for you, web-head. Literally in fact. How can I forget my knight in shining armor, grabbing me out of the sky?”

Peter snorts, and pulls Johnny in for another kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> This may become a multi chapter or part of a series
> 
>  
> 
> Also find me on tumblr! I’m LostOnMyRoad


End file.
